2021 Hate Crimes Statistics
In December 2022, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released Hate Crime Statistics 2021, an annual compilation of bias-motivated incidents in the United States.
Overall, law enforcement agencies reported 7,262 total incidents and 9,024 victims, demonstrating that hate crimes remain a concern for communities across the country. The overall number of agencies reporting decreased to 11,834, from 15,138 in 2021, so data cannot reliably be compared across years.
This is the first year the annual hate crimes statistics are reported entirely through the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). As a result of the shift to NIBRS-only data collection, law enforcement agency participation in submitting all crime statistics, including hate crimes, fell significantly from 2020 to 2021. Law enforcement agencies that did not transition to reporting crime data through NIBRS were not able to submit hate crime statistics to the FBI. Several of the nation’s largest law enforcement agencies, as well as some states, did not make the transition to NIBRS in time to submit data prior to the reporting deadline, and are not included in the 2021 reported totals. As more agencies transition to the NIBRS data collection with continued support from the Justice Department, hate crime statistics in coming years will provide a richer and more complete picture of hate crimes nationwide.
According to this year’s data, 64.8% of victims were targeted because of the offenders’ bias toward race/ethnicity/ancestry, which continues to be the largest bias motivation category. Anti-Black or African American hate crimes continue to be the largest bias incident category, with 63.2% of all single-bias incidents in 2021. Additionally, anti-Asian incidents represented 4.3% of incidents reported in 2021. The other largest categories of hate crimes include anti-Hispanic or Latino incidents, with 6.1% of incidents, and anti-White incidents, with 13.4% of incidents.
Together, incidents related to sexual orientation and gender identity represented 19.7% of all single-bias incidents reported in 2022. Also, incidents related to religion comprised 14.2% of incidents, disability comprised 1.8%, and gender comprised 1.0%.
A total of 1,005 incidents related to religion were reported. The largest categories of religion included:
- Anti-Jewish incidents: 31.9%
- Anti-Sikh incidents: 21.3%
- Anti-Islamic incidents: 9.5%
- Anti-Catholic incidents: 6.1%
- Anti-Eastern Orthodox (Russian, Greek, Other): 6.5%
The FBI Hate Crime Statistics is an annual compilation of bias-motivated incidents in the United States. For the purpose of the report, a hate crime is defined as a criminal offense which is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias(es) against a person based on race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender, and gender identity.
The full data set can be found on the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer (CDE) website. Note: The Uniform Crime Reporting Program uses different methodologies when compiling the Hate Crime Statistics Annual Reports and the data housed on the Hate Crime Explorer Page of the CDE. The Hate Crime Statistics Annual Report adheres to publication rules and logic. The CDE’s Hate Crime Explorer page is populated using the Hate Crime Master File, which contains the raw data.
For more information on CRS services and programs related to preventing and responding to hate crimes, view Our Work page or CRS's Programs and Services brochure for an overview of offerings.